Every living human needs proper oxygenation. We all breathe, most of the time unconsciously. The normal respiratory rate of a healthy adult is anywhere from 12-20 breaths per minute. Many people think of air as oxygen, but in reality the air we all inhale is approximately 79 percent nitrogen gas (N2) and 21 percent oxygen gas (O2) with trace amounts of negligible gases. When we exhale, we return the same 79 percent N2 to our surroundings with 16 percent O2, and about 5 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), so there’s a clear exchange between O2 and CO2 as we breathe in and out. The dynamics of how this occurs is indeed a fascinating scientific mechanism.

One of the fundamental questions, aside from the obvious, should be in regards to oxygen’s role in the maintenance of homeostasis within the body. In cellular respiration, oxygen is the ultimate electron acceptor in the mitochondrion of every...

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Medicine has a problem and it goes along with social inequality. As I write this blog, I find myself in distraught at the thought that at this very moment an individual is fighting a treatable condition alone, without appropriate medical care. Some months ago I read an article published in The Guardian titled “America’s poorest border town: no immigration papers no American Dream.” In short, the article discusses the hardships endured by the residents of one of many small communities known as las colonias near the border town of McAllen, Texas. McAllen calls itself the Square Dance Capital of the World, the streets are adorned with majestic palm trees magnified in grace by the beautiful south Texas sunset, but just seven miles east from McAllen along the interstate...

Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, is the conclusion of Dr. Eliseo Guallar M.D., DrPH. But when it comes to supplements this statement is not just the isolated sentiment of Guallar, it is also the title of his well-reviewed 2013 editorial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A few days ago, FRONTLINE released a documentary targeting the multibillion-dollar supplement industry. The documentary highlights the potential dangers consumers face, the industry’s lack of regulation, and fraudulence. It is safe to say that most people in America know the FDA does not oversee the regulation of supplements; in fact makers of supplements do not have to prove their products actually work or are safe for human consumption unless a particular ingredient is introduced to the public for the first time.

The documentary begins with the fiasco of a...

The Halloween season has past, but GMOs keep haunting thousands of consumers. I was only four years old when the Flavr Savr tomato was introduced to the world. Flavr Savr was the first genetically modify organism to be approved for human consumption by the FDA. Interestingly, this GM fruit did not involved any genetic material of other species, in fact, the modification was a blockage of a gene in the tomato itself. Blocking this gene allowed the tomato to slow its ripening process, giving it a longer shelf life and, in theory, better “Flavr” (flavor). The innovation proved to be a fiasco among consumers.

Today we see an even stronger wave of opposition towards GMOs. In spite of the overwhelming pool of scientific evidence disproving the “common sense” misconceptions held by familiar anti-GMO proponents; the general public has grown fearful believing GMOs somehow damage the...

The use of mobile devices has skyrocketed since the decade after the year 2000. In the United States it is estimated that 90 percent of adults have cellular phones. Like any other new technology concerns about safety are raised despite their popularity, yet in a recent Consumer Reports survey involving 1,000 adults only 50 reported any safety concerns and less than half took any steps to limit their exposure. So, should we be worried? What is cell-phone radiation? Can cell-phones cause cancer? And where does the scientific community stand?

We interchangeably use the words radiation and radioactivity, but it is important to note that they don’t necessarily mean the same thing. With Radioactive by Imagine Dragons on people’s playlists I believe it is of some interest to understand what radioactivity is. If you recall from high school chemistry, every element in the periodic table has an...

Empty space is beautiful

We’ve all heard of the great gluten-free diet…

Without a doubt vendors and grocery stores greatly profit from these products. According to Mintel, a marketing research company, gluten-free products are projected to produce more than 15 billion US dollars in annual sales just in 2016. I have seen that through effective marketing the man behind the curtain tacitly distills the thought that gluten-free products are more nutritious and lead to better health, you don’t have to look beyond the packaging. But what’s gluten? Why do some people find gluten hard to stomach? Celiac disease, what is that? Are the loathers, and avoiders on a path to better health than the rest of us? Are there any realistic medical reasons to avoid gluten-containing products? Let’s examine what this is all about.

Gluten (from glue) is an umbrella name given to a group of proteins found in wheat (emmer, durum...

Most of us have heard of antioxidants and their flabbergasting health properties. Since the onset of early scientific findings linking antioxidants to better health the supplement industry has lured consumers who want a life with fewer health complications and an increase in overall wellness. But beyond the hype of crunchy granolas, Toms, and antioxidants what should we all know about these compounds? What do they protect against and how is this accomplished? What is their relation to aging and disease? Can we trust the fad diet claims or more specifically, those in the supplement industry? If you are interested in the answer to any of these questions and more just stick around, I promise your time will be well spent.

In short, antioxidants do exactly what their name implies, i.e., they protect against oxidative stress and damaged caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) otherwise...

The short answer is, non-human sialic acids. These are the presumed culprits behind red meat’s link to cancer.

But before we delve into some molecular and evolutionary biology let’s set the record straight. When discussing “breaking news” a healthy dose of skepticism is the best potion, as there has been instances where these shocking breakthroughs report nothing more than the findings of a single study, in many instances these single studies are not even reproducible and have limitations of their own (e.g., small sample size). Valued scientific reports are those that encompass the systematic consolidation of the totality of evidence. Perhaps now you have an idea as to why we often hear that so many different things cause cancer, exactly, the answer is: irresponsible science reporting. Overall, these kind of faulty breakthroughs actually endangers the trustworthiness of the...